Get Volunteering!

Central England Co-operative has committed to volunteering each colleague for up to three days a year to support a wide range of events and beneficiaries.

On Friday 20 May at total of 16 colleagues supported two events in Tipton and Derby. The events were everything volunteering should embody, engaged colleagues, happy beneficiaries and the opportunity to add real value to the lives of members of our trading communities.

A team of 10 from HR, IT and Funeral contributed to a project at Hadhari Day Centre in Derby, where they painted the day rooms, provided goodie bags and vouchers and shared some of our snack products with the users of the centre. When asked how many goodie bags the team at the Hadhari Day Centre would like the response was “Wow, that is so generous and kind. … 40 is the average daily attendance but if that is too many, any number will be more than wonderful. Thank you.” Their gratitude and excitement on the day meant the event was massively rewarding.

Steven Palmer from Central England Co-operative, Team Leader on the day said after the event “We had a brilliant time ... It was great spending time as a team doing something positive that will benefit the local community.”

At Tipton Sports Academy, six colleagues from our Business Support Centre in Lichfield joined with other businesses to run a Fit for Fun event. Our no obstacle to healthy eating activity included an obstacle race and giant jigsaw, tasty snacks and mini healthy choices workshop.

The competition was fierce (and not just among the children) and we met 131 members of the future and their teachers , sending them all home with goodie bags. Give & Gain is an annual event and while there is one day of focus for activity we also have an event running on 28 June at Branching Out in Ely.

We have seven store colleagues from Littleport signed up to support and there are three remaining spaces if you would like to join them which you can book via the volunteering portal.

About The Author: Jo Baldock

Learning and development

We support colleagues across the Society to help them achieve their potential